


The Topic of Girls

by KedakaiOkami



Series: Original Beyblade Drabbles [3]
Category: Bakuten Shoot Beyblade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27727738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KedakaiOkami/pseuds/KedakaiOkami
Summary: Kai somehow finds himself giving Rei advice on his relationship with Mao despite not actually having a girlfriend himself.  Some teasing goes on between the two of them and hinted KaixHiromi.
Relationships: Chen Mao | Mariah Wong/Kon Rei | Ray Kon, Hiwatari Kai & Tachibana Hiromi | Hilary Tachibana
Series: Original Beyblade Drabbles [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028187
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	The Topic of Girls

Any time he wasn’t busy, Kai found himself wondering about the girl on Takao’s team, Hiromi. Kai’s thoughts drifted to her when other things were on his mind. He could be privately analysing the team, attempting to predict the next group break up, and for some reason he’d start thinking about Hiromi. Where did she come in to Rei’s torn loyalties? It was Rei that the next group break up would come from, if Kai had been a gambler he would have put money on it. Rei was constantly going back and forth between the teams and it was getting on Takao’s nerves, which got on Hiromi’s nerves. She hated it when the team fought.

“You can’t just keep going to them and coming back like that,” Takao was complaining. “There’s a tournament coming up and we need you here! Tell him, Kai!”

“I’m not getting involved,” Kai responded boredly as he watched Hiromi, counting down the seconds to when she lost it and battered Takao. An event which always made Kai’s day because it was so damn funny, not that he would ever show it.

Takao turned back to Rei when he saw that he’d have no backup. “You need to be on a team for the tournament. You can’t just go back and forth like a yo-yo. It’s them or us!”

“TAKAO!!” Hiromi screamed before smacking the world champ with one of his grandfather’s bokkens. “Will you just stop it and think, you moron?! Of course Rei’s going to go back and see them! He grew up with them. He’s going back mostly to see Mao!”

Kai’s attention turned to Rei by this point to see the latter blushing. He had noticed Rei spending time with Hiromi, the two of them speaking quietly away from the others. It was something he’d wondered about but pretended not to notice or care. Kai’s lips twitched up into a smirk before he pulled on his neutral again. Mao Chou had been infatuated with Rei all along, it seemed that Rei reciprocated those feelings, something they’d suspected for a while now, and had gone to another girl for advice about how to deal with those feelings and broach the subject with Mao.

“He comes back because he intends to blade for us!” Hiromi continued to lecture Takao, and Kai’s secret amusement increased. “Don’t you realise that getting on his case is only going to push Rei away and make him join them instead?! You can be such an insensitive jerk sometimes, you know that?”

“I’M insensitive?! You’re the one hitting me with a bamboo sword!” Takao snapped at Hiromi as Rei left the dojo.

“That’s to knock sense into you, you pig!” Hiromi snapped.

Daichi burst out laughing. “Wow, the old witch is really crazy!”

“You take that back, you little creep!” Hiromi shouted as she chased the brat they all compared to a monkey from the building.

Kai quietly left the dojo as well and joined Rei out by the pond. “And here I thought it was your loyalties torn again,” he commented to the Chinese teen.

“There’s so much more that I can learn, Rai and the others accept that,” Rei replied.

“Takao’s an idiot. He always has been. I’d tell you to ignore him, but I know you’ve already been doing that,” Kai commented.

“And here I thought all your attention was on Hiromi,” Rei said with a smirk.

“Okay, number one, my attention follows most of what’s going on around me, not just one person. Number two, what you’re insinuating, you’re wrong. And number three, that’s rich coming from someone who went about as red as a traffic light at the mere mention of Mao,” Kai listed.

“Let’s see how pale your face stays when I shout out to the guys that you like Hiromi,” Rei responded in amusement.

“I do not!” Kai snapped.

“Are you blushing, Kai?” Rei asked lightly.

“No, I’m not!”

“Let’s find out what the others have to say then.”

“Rei, no!” Kai protested.

“Rei, yes,” Rei responded, moving to head back in, but jarred to a sudden halt as Kai caught his arm. Rei looked Kai’s hand before meeting his gaze. “I’m not really going to tell them, relax. I just wanted to see your reaction.”

“You’re an ass,” Kai told him as he let go of Rei’s arm.

“I’m your friend. And friends tease each other all the time. But friends also support and help each other, which is why I’m going to tell you that Hiromi likes you too. Now what you do with that information is your business. And I swear on Byakko that what I just told you is true.”

“How do you know it’s true?” Kai asked, hating that he’d slipped like that and that he sounded vulnerable. But why did he care? Was Rei right about him? Did he like Hiromi?

“Well, for one thing she looks up to you. Sure, we all do, but there’s something more where Hiromi’s concerned. She had a go at launching a beyblade before and of all the bladers she could have imitated, it was your style she copied,” Rei told Kai casually.

Kai frowned a little. He didn’t remember Hiromi ever launching a Beyblade. “When was this?” he asked.

“When we were getting ready to face Borcloff’s team, on the bus,” Rei answered.

“She launched a Beyblade in a bus?” Kai asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, Kyoujou’s beyblade. It shot all over the place and we had to take cover.”

“Copying me doesn’t prove anything though,” Kai pointed out.

“But her telling me that she thinks you’re cute does,” Rei replied.

“Cute?!” Kai exclaimed, aghast. “I am not cute!” Rei covered Kai’s mouth with one hand, making a shushing gesture with the other, almost collapsing on Kai from the bout of hysterics Kai’s reaction had brought on. Kai pulled Rei’s hand away from his face and gripped the younger teen’s shoulders to get his attention. “I’m not cute,” he repeated in a hiss, and was further frustrated by the fact that Rei merely shook with even more laughter. “Cute is a kitten or puppy,” Kai clarified, rolling his eyes and releasing Rei, deeming the other to be a lost cause.

“I know that, you idiot,” Rei gasped, trying to compose himself. “And it’s murder to any intimidating persona you try to project, but that’s how girls are. Mao says I’m cute. You shouldn’t let it bother you because all it means is that she thinks you’re good looking. It’s not like I said it, or even some random person you don’t know.”

“I have a reputation to maintain,” Kai pointed out.

“Yeah, and freaking out like that doesn’t boost your reputation, it just makes you look insecure,” Rei replied. “Look, you put on this whole image of not caring what people think or say. So if Hiromi says you’re cute, you should let that slide the same way you let the insults slide. Like I said, Mao says I’m cute. I just smile and let her. If someone else says it, like Kiki for example, I glare at him and he shuts up and ducks behind Gao.”

“So you and Mao are actually an item now then?” Kai asked. “Officially?” He felt a certain amount of satisfaction to see that Rei was blushing again. Somehow it seemed to even out the battlefield, figuratively speaking, to know that Rei was just as uncomfortable with the topic as he was. “You wanted to talk about girls,” Kai pointed out to ensure Rei didn’t back out. “So let’s talk about girls. You and Mao?”

“Y-yeah,” Rei answered, the rare stutter showing his discomfort.

“And you’ve been going back to see her? Hiromi was right?” Kai asked, receiving an affirmative hum from Rei this time. “Does Rai actually know?” Rei nodded. “How did he take that?”

“If we’re going to talk about this then you’re going to talk about Hiromi properly,” Rei told Kai firmly, finding his nerve again.

Kai felt a sudden concern rise up in him, not a panic at the idea of having to talk about Hiromi, but a concern for Rei’s safety and well-being. Rai was a hot-head and had a bit of a temper on him. He was Mao’s older brother and while he had been Rei’s best friend growing up, there was definitely some degree of rivalry between the two of them. Kai narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Rei, has Rai been giving you a hard time?” he asked sternly.

Rei’s mouth opened a little, a silent gasp which he quickly fought back, and his pupils narrowed a little for a brief moment. Rei then refused to meet Kai’s gaze head on, choosing to look just past Kai’s head or at the ground. “We’re not talking about Rai,” he said quietly.

“Perhaps not specifically, but we’re talking about girls and he is the older brother of your love interest which brings him into the topic whether you like it or not,” Kai replied. “And we are going to talk about this now because I know you’re having problems.”

“No, I’m not! What about you and Hiromi and how you can’t even admit to yourself that you like her?!” Rei responded hotly.

For a moment they both froze and stared at each other, each realising the truth behind the other’s words and the futility to deny it any further. On an unspoken agreement they both began to walk away from the Kinomiya residence, neither of them sure who was following who, but they stopped at the viewpoint and leaned on the railing. “I’ll talk about Hiromi if you tell me the truth about what’s going on back home with you,” Kai offered after an uncomfortable silence.

Rei sighed but didn’t speak right away. “Alright,” he agreed finally, “Deal.” Kai nodded once and waited for Rei to speak again. “It’s not that Rai’s against me dating Mao. He gave me his blessing. It’s not that I’m constantly away because whatever I learn I teach them. It’s more…anything going wrong is all my fault and even the smallest thing is a catastrophe. And you know girls get irritable a certain time of the month with their hormones, well if Mao’s pissy because of that then somehow that’s my fault too. Everything negative in Mao’s moods is because of me and I’m not doing a good enough job at making her happy. Don’t get me wrong, Mao and I are fine and she doesn’t seem to mind the little things going wrong, but it’s just...I wonder if I’m getting in between them or something ‘cause when he gets on my case about her being in a bad mood she gets on his case.”

“Mao should be free to make her own choices. Rai’s her brother, but you’re her boyfriend. Her spending time with you shouldn’t make him feel threatened. It shouldn’t affect you guys as a team or as friends. It’s impossible for a person to be happy all the time. So I don’t see what his problem is. Unless he hasn’t really forgiven you for leaving, or maybe he just misses the way that things used to be.”

“Maybe,” Rei replied. “I’ve been trying to spend time with them all equally though. It’s hard to do because she’s a part of the team and that means she’s there during team time and our alone time and there just aren’t enough hours in the day to spend time with them all individually while making it fair on our relationship. And there’s not a lot we can do for a guy’s night when we’re in the middle of nowhere and Mao doesn’t really have any female friends in the village of our age group.”

“Then you should try to get them to spend time with you here,” Kai reasoned logically. “You can have a guy’s night out to the movies to watch some stupid horror flick and make fun of while Mao spends time with Hiromi.”

“That could work as long as I can convince them,” Rei agreed amiably, “So about Hiromi? I’ve seen you watching her when you think nobody’s looking.”

“The truth is that I don’t actually know how I feel about her,” Kai relented. “I just keep finding myself thinking of her. The way she fusses over everyone and how she explodes at Takao when he’s being an idiot.” Kai felt his own smile of amusement at that thought but he wasn’t too bothered by it when Rei responded with his own grin. “I have to admit, I didn’t think much of her to begin with, but the fact that she was able to help and her determination just changed my opinion of her. She put up with a lot from us and still stuck around, even joining in with the training.”

“She’s the one who pointed out that we needed to go back to basics, which helped us a lot, and you enjoy watching her batter Takao,” Rei observed and Kai looked at him. “Oh, don’t even try to deny it. I know you find it funny because I see the amusement on your face every time.”

“I won’t deny it,” Kai shrugged. “It is funny. Takao has it coming every time. We all want to just thump him sometimes and Hiromi’s the one who actually follows through.”

“Kai, that’s awful,” Rei admonished.

“It’s true though,” Kai pointed out.

“I guess,” Rei mused.

“Tell me you haven’t ever wanted to batter the twit.”

“Well maybe not batter him, but I will admit sometimes I feel like punching him,” Rei admitted.

“Exactly. And Hiromi’s the one who hits him when he deserves it.”

“So basically what you’re saying is that you admire her?”

“I guess.”

“But it’s more than just that, isn’t it?” Rei guessed and received a shrug. “Why don’t you try speaking to her?”

“I dunno, Rei, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“I am. It’s a great idea. You won’t get anywhere unless you talk to her. It’s clear to me that you like her too, you’re blushing by the way.”

“Shut up, Rei,” Kai snapped.

“You gonna talk to her then?”

“You’re not going to drop this, are you?” Kai guessed.

“Nope,” Rei confirmed brightly.

“In my own time when I’ve worked everything out. Happy?”

“Ecstatic,” Rei drawled and Kai gave him a look before punching his arm lightly.

“And don’t even breathe a word of this to anyone,” Kai warned.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Rei replied brightly.

“I mean it, Rei.”

“Kai, relax. Everything said between us will stay between us in the strictest confidence. I don’t want Takao hearing about Rai and then jumping the gun to cause problems. These are our little secrets.”

“Hn,” Kai grunted in response. He and Rei both turned as Hiromi’s voice called them from behind. The girl was running towards them and Kai turned back to the railing while Rei waved to her.

“Hey, what are you guys doing out here?” Hiromi asked. “We wondered where you were. You didn’t say a word to anyone, you just disappeared.”

“Sorry, Hiromi,” Rei replied brightly while Kai wondered why he suddenly felt nervous around Hiromi. “We were wanting some peace from Takao and Kai was giving me some advice.”

“Oh, okay,” Hiromi responded in acceptance of the explanation. “Well, Kyoujou has some data and parts he wants to show you guys.”

“We’ll catch up then,” Rei told her after glancing at Kai. Hiromi nodded and left. Rei looked at Kai again. “If there was ever any doubt--”

“I know,” Kai interrupted. “Shut up.” Rei laughed and they headed back.


End file.
